Liturgy Pacific is the on-line presence of Richard Geoffrey Leggett, Rector of Saint Faith's Anglican Church in Vancouver and Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies at Vancouver School of Theology. Here you will find sermons, comments on current Anglican and Lutheran affairs and reflections on the need for progressive orthodox Christians to re-claim our place on the theological stage.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Lazarus, Come Out! Reflections on John 11.1-45 (2 April 2017)

11.1 Now a certain man
was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.2 Mary was the one who anointed the
Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.3 So the sisters sent a message to
Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”4
But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather
it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through
it.”5 Accordingly, though
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard
that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said
to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now
trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”9 Jesus answered, “Are there not
twelve hours of daylight?Those who walk
during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world.10 But those who walk at night
stumble, because the light is not in them.”11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has
fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.”12 The disciples said to him,
“Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”13 Jesus, however, had been speaking
about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.14 Then Jesus told them plainly,
“Lazarus is dead.15 For your
sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.But let us go to him.”16 Thomas, who was called the
Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he
found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem,
some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and
Mary to console them about their brother.20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met
him, while Mary stayed at home.21
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died.22 But even now I know
that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”23 Jesus said to her, “Your
brother will rise again.”24
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the
last day.”25 Jesus said to
her, “I am the resurrection and the life.Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.Do you believe this?”27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I
believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the
world.”

28 When she had said
this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The
Teacher is here and is calling for you.”29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to
him.30 Now Jesus had not yet
come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.31 The Jews who were with her in
the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out.They followed her because they thought that
she was going to the tomb to weep there.32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at
his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died.”33 When Jesus saw
her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly
disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.34
He said, “Where have you laid him?”They
said to him, “Lord, come and see.”35
Jesus began to weep.36 So
the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”37
But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have
kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again
greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.It
was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to
him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not
tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”41 So they took away the
stone.And Jesus looked upward and said,
“Father, I thank you for having heard me.42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for
the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent
me.”43 When he had said
this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”44 The dead man came out, his
hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a
cloth.Jesus said to them, “Unbind him,
and let him go.”

45 Many of the Jews
therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

In
the fall of 1995 I attended my first meeting of the Joint Anglican-Lutheran Working
Group and began the work of bringing the Anglican Church of Canada and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada into full communion.As often happens at such meetings, the chair
began our first session by asking an ‘ice-breaker’ question:‘If you were a character in a novel, who
would you be?’I answered, ‘A character
in a Chaim Potok novel.’

Chaim
Potok is an American Jewish novelist and rabbi who died in 2002.Several of his novels deal with a similar
theme.A young man from a conservative
and religiously observant home realizes that he can no longer live in that
world.He strikes out into the more
liberal and non-religious world and has some success.But he is still rooted in his religious
heritage and must navigate this ‘brave new world’ of his life as someone who no
longer fits comfortably in either his old nor his new context.He has died to his past and rises to face a
future that is difficult, painful and uncertain, but there is no going back.

The
raising of Lazarus from the tomb is a story about dying to one life and rising
to a new one, but it is not a story about living happily ever after.I cannot imagine Lazarus forgetting that he
died.His thoughts and emotions remain
etched in his memory.He knows that he
will face this again.Through Jesus’
actions Lazarus has also become a symbol, a sign that points to a truth greater
than the sign itself.Being a symbol is
not a vocation for the faint-hearted.It
is difficult; it is painful; it is uncertain; but there is no going back.

And
do not forget that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for that final week of his
life.Soon the crowds that were cheering
him will disappear to find hiding places in the shadows.Soon Jesus will be hanging on a cross and
even his own disciples will scurry away in fear.Bethany is not that far from Jerusalem and,
in verses we did not read today, the Jewish authorities take the rising of
Lazarus as a declaration of war that cannot be tolerated.They begin to discuss how to rid themselves
of this troublesome rabbi.If I were
Lazarus, a symbol of Jesus’ authority, I might begin to be a bit worried.Being called out of a tomb may seem a
wonderful thing, but it leads to being called into a new life.

I
found myself this week pondering this question:What tomb are we, as a Christian community, being called out of?I can think of three.

Some
of us, I think, are being called out of a tomb called nostalgia.There is a past in which we find comfort, a
past where everything seemed just right, a past where we knew our place.Some political leaders play on this nostalgia
with mottos that suggest that things can be made ‘great’ again.Now it must be said that the past can be a
source of strength, but it is not a place to live.Genuine Christian faith cannot be nurtured by
nostalgia.

Others
of us are being called out of a tomb called uncertainty.We live in the present and honesty compels me
to say that the present-day society in which we live and serve is not easy for
me to comprehend.I can understand the
longing for certainty that leads some of our friends, family and neighbours to
join liberal and conservative movements that promise answers.It is not easy to be a leader within a
religious tradition that ‘loves the questions’ that daily life brings.Yesterday I heard Archdeacon Michael
Thompson, the General Secretary of our church, say that we can only approach
truth, we cannot own it.Genuine
Christian hope is not found in certainty but in a commitment to a life-long
journey towards the truth that we name as God.

And
then there are our sisters and brothers who live in a tomb called fear.They know that they cannot live in the past
and the uncertainty of the present unsettles them.Fear blinds them to the possibilities that,
even in the uncertainties of the present, God is building the foundation for
the future.Genuine Christian love
cannot thrive in fear.

Like
Lazarus we are called out of the tombs that confine us and into a new life
found in being a disciple of Jesus.And
what life are we being called into?

We
are called into a life of faith.Faith
in God as revealed in Jesus is an attitude of trust that whatever comforts the
past may hold for us, they are inadequate to sustain us in our journey towards
Christian maturity.Faith honours the
past as a reminder of what God’s power can accomplish in us.Faith does not promise an easy journey but a
journey that is infinitely more rewarding that remaining in the oases of nostalgia.

We
are called into life of hope.Hope is
the conviction that whatever uncertainty we may experience in the present God
is at work, even now, to bring about the divine promises for us and for all
whom God has made.Hope dares to believe
that we are agents of God, sharing in the messy work of witnessing to the world
an alternative way of community.

We
are called into a life of love.As Paul
writes, ‘Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant or rude.It does not insist on
its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in
wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.’ (1 Corinthians 13.4-7)Love
sees the world as God sees it and as the world is called to become.

My
friends, this community of St. Faith’s has a rich past.Let us remember with thanksgiving all those
who have come before us and whose gifts sustain us.This community has a challenging present, but
God is working among us and through us and in us.This community is a symbol of the future God
is bringing about and we have role in making that future visible to our
neighbours. Let no tomb confine us,
whether nostalgia or uncertainty or fear or anything else.Let us hear Jesus’ words, spoken to Lazarus,
spoken to us, ‘Come out.Come out and
live in faith, hope and love.’

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About Me

Richard is a presbyter of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster with a number of responsibilities. He is Rector of Saint Faith's Anglican Church in Vancouver. Richard is also the Principal Consultant for Liturgy Pacific, a worship consultancy providing educational seminars and resources for congregational life and ministry. After 23 years as a member of the faculty of Vancouver School of Theology, Dr Leggett became Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies in 2010. Since 1989 Dr Leggett has served on various national committees of the Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches in Canada and is a regular participant in the work of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation. From 2010 to 2016 he was a Member of the Liturgy Task Force of the Anglican Church of Canada.